I interrupt regularly scheduled vacation blogging to bring you this critical news flash.

Some of my regular blog readers know that I have had plans for quite some time (first documented here) to self publish my blog writings in the form of a book, for my children to read and share with their own children someday. Well, I am ecstatic to announce that the book is a reality and is officially available on Amazon! Click here, or on the book cover image below, to see for yourself.

[amazonshowcase_246bbe25f60a18f71623767b0b2045b6]

Thanks so much to all of you who read my blog, whether regularly or just occasionally. Though I don’t blog as often as I did when I started, your continued kind comments and positive feedback have encouraged me to keep going. My children will thank you some day for giving me the support I needed to keep writing for them. And keep going I will. This is only Volume 1 of what I hope will eventually be many.

And by the way, this is in no way a sales pitch. Especially since my regular visitors have read most of it already. It’s just an expression of my ecstatic joy at seeing my name on Amazon. It was a pipe dream. I never really thought it would happen.

Best of The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions: Top Articles from the eMagazine’s First Five Years

My chapter begins on page 83.

Upon receiving these coveted treasures and showing them off to everyone in the vicinity, I emailed the editor to let him know how great the final product looks. He responded that “there are few things in life more pleasing than getting your author copies from the publisher.” Pleasing? I think that wins the award for understatement of the year!

So if anyone needs me in the near future, try looking on cloud number nine. Because I think it will be some time before I am properly earthbound again.

Meanwhile, a preview of the table of contents on the publisher’s website shows that my words have earned a spot as chapter 6. I recognize a couple of the other contributing authors as very big names in the field of e-learning. There’s no way I belong in the same league—I’m barely fit to breathe the same air, let alone exist between the covers of the same book—but I’ll enjoy my 15 minutes of fame.

And a pretty good 15 minutes it will be. As one of the “authors,” I will be participating in an author signing at the eLearning Guild’s annual conference in mid-April. And I’ve been invited to serve as a panelist in a panel discussion on the current state of e-learning, immediately after the book signing.

Life is feeling just a little too good to be true today.

Disclaimer: This post is in no way a sales plug, because I earn a big fat zero from any sales of the book. My only compensation is two free copies of the finished product. And the glory of seeing my name eternally in print.

Dear Monique,

 

The eLearning Guild has identified your article, “The Design Document: Your Blueprint for e-Learning Standards and Consistency,” as one of the top 25 that we have published since 2002! This selection is based on the ongoing downloads since original publication and on our judgment of the quality and ongoing value of the content in the article.

 

We are working with Pfeiffer, an imprint of Wiley, to produce a book containing the best of the articles from Learning Solutions and The eLearning Developers’ Journal. With your permission, I would like to include your article in the book, which is tentatively scheduled for release in the spring of 2008. As one of the contributing authors, your bio and photo will be published in the book, and you will receive two copies of the book.

 

Both Pfeiffer and The eLearning Guild will promote sales of the book. It will be available for purchase online from The Guild Web site and from Pfeiffer. It will also be on sale at events sponsored by The eLearning Guild, such as the Guild Annual Conference and DevLearn. Pfeiffer is a well-known and respected publisher of books on training, and it has a global presence. By appearing in The Guild’s book, your article will potentially come to the attention of thousands of readers worldwide who would otherwise not have access to it.

 

If you would like for your article to appear in the book, please complete the attached agreement, sign it, make a copy for yourself, and return the original to me along with your updated 150-word bio, and a current photo of yourself. Mail these to me so that I receive them by Friday, August 3, 2007. (For your convenience, you may email your photo to me as a high-resolution JPEG file.) If you do not want your article to appear in the book, please let me know no later than Friday, July 27, 2007 so that I have time to find a replacement.

 

Thank you once again for your contributions to The eLearning Guild’s publications, and we are all looking forward to seeing your work in this book!

 

Best regards,

Bill Brandon, Editor

The eLearning Guild

I’m getting published. I’m getting published! I’m getting PUBLISHED!!!!

I won’t make a cent from the deal, but I will forever have the honor of seeing my words and my name published in print, from a respected publisher in my field. God is good!

The word my brain was seeking, by the way, was “unconditional.” Now I can sleep tonight.

Folks, way too many people out there are using a hyphen or two (like this – or this –) when they mean an em dash (like this —) or maybe its cousin, the en dash (like this –).

So what is an em dash and why should you care? Humor me for a moment while I explain the difference. Then I’m going to teach you how to create these misunderstood punctuation marks for yourself.

A hyphen (-) is the smallest dash, except that technically, it’s not a dash at all. The hyphen, as it is accurately called, is used for compound words, to hyphenate words at line breaks, and to separate strings of numbers that don’t represent a range, such as your phone number (800-555-1234) or social security number (123-45-6789). Or you might use it when spelling out a word, like h-y-p-h-e-n. That’s pretty much it. Just about any other use of this key on your keyboard is incorrect, typographically speaking.

An en dash (–) is slightly longer than a hyphen. Often the same width as the letter N, to be exact. Hence the name “en” dash. It is generally used to connect ranges of numbers or related text. If you can substitute the word “to” in place of the dash, an en dash is your correct choice. For example, you would use an en dash for:

• pages (pp. 28–35)
• dates (Monday–Friday; November 2–5)
• times (8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.)
• Bible verses (Matthew 28:18–20)
• a relationship between two locations (New York–Los Angeles flight)
• sports scores, vote counts, and other number relationships (we won 27–2)

Sometimes the en dash can even be used instead of a hyphen, but consult your handy dandy reference manual for the precise rules around this. This blog post is not titled “The mighty mighty en dash,” after all—though there is a correctly used example of en dash as hyphen within this post, if you can spot it. In any case, only the punctuation nazis (that might be me) are going to notice if you sneak in a hyphen where an en dash is required. I’ve been known to do it myself, out of sheer laziness.

An em dash (—) is the longest dash, the width of the letter—say it with me—M. My beloved em dash is a super comma of sorts. It sets off a thought or phrase within your sentence in a way that is stronger than a comma, less severe than a colon or semi-colon, and less interruptive to your flow than parentheses. It’s not right for every parenthetical or explanatory thought—or even most such thoughts—but it has its place in the annals of punctuation. And it’s been overlooked by far too many people.

But that’s okay, you deprived non–em dash users. You have a good excuse. Do you even know how to create an em dash on your keyboard? I didn’t think so. Not many people do, unless they are power em dash users like me. You really have to love the em dash to go to all the trouble of adding one to your document. Lucky for you, I’m going to show you how. It turns out that our good friend Bill Gates has given us a few cumbersome, but not too difficult to remember, ways to do this.

By now, the observant ones among you are asking, “But what happens when I’m not using Word?” I feel your pain, fellow bloggers. I feel your pain. Like right now, for instance, as I write this blog in an application not dreamed up by the fine minds of Microsoft. Friends, now you know. For every em dash you have ever viewed on this website, I have painstakingly typed out the arcane combination of Alt+0151 (Alt+0150 for the en dashes). It was not easy, but for you, I have committed these cryptic numbers to memory.

Why do I bother, you might ask? True, it’s hard to be pro em dash in a blogging world, but I’m sticking to my guns. I care because I’m a perfectionist. Case in point: I have a friend who told me recently that she’s never seen a typo in my blog. Ever. While that’s giving me more credit than I deserve (but go ahead and try to find a typo that hasn’t already been found and corrected by me, I double dog dare you—a prize might be involved for whomever finds one first), I AM a stickler for the rules. Allowing for creative license, of course.

And also because I happen to like the beauty of the em dash. Two hyphens? Well, that’s just ugly. It’s fractured punctuation in need of repair.

A final thought on the em dash before I depart the subject. The use of spaces surrounding the em dash is often considered a matter of stylistic preference. My reference of choice, The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, says no to a space between the em dash and the surrounding words. Others say differently. It’s up to you—just be consistent with whatever you choose. Your readers will thank you.

My thought process goes something like this…

"       "

That’s it. Dead silence in my brain. My esteemed gray matter always seems to fail me when I am counting on it for ideas and words. It’s in there, somewhere, I know it is. It’s just being held hostage or something. Ahhhh, back to the drawing board.

My article, titled "The Design Document: Your Blueprint for e-Learning Standards and Consistency," was published in today’s electronic issue of Learning Solutions e-Magazine (formerly known as The eLearning Developers’ Journal). So much for my prediction about when I’d be gloating over this topic, due to a few date changes from December 12 to November 28 to, finally, TODAY!

I’m even getting paid a paltry (very paltry) stipend for my efforts, which works out to the staggering amount of just over two cents per word. At that rate, you’ve definitely gotta do it because you love it and crave the recognition of seeing your name in print, not because you are going to get filthy rich. I’ll be donating the fee to a worthy cause.

Hopefully this is just the first of many writing credits to my name. I’m not sure why this is such a big deal for me because it’s far from the first thing I’ve written. I do a lot of technical writing in my profession, and this article isn’t all that different. But it means a lot to me that I have finally written something, however small, that will forever be associated with me instead of my employer. Even if it is still related to my job. The difference is that I did it on my time, because I wanted to, not because I had to. It’s partly about making a commitment and following through; something I’ve not always been very good at doing. And it’s partly about sharing my knowledge and being recognized as a contributor to my field. And it’s very much about receiving a compliment from a professional editor that my article is one of the best-written he’s received lately. That means a lot because it’s the first time something I’ve written has been reviewed by an editor of any type. At work, I am the editor. It’s also the first writing I’ve ever been paid for, outside the training materials I have produced as required in the scope of my regular job. My blog, which is all about writing on a regular basis and sharpening my skills, seems like the logical place to succumb to vanity and pride, and give myself a little pat on the back for my accomplishment. It’s a personal milestone, and now I have the writing bug in a big way.

It’s good to have goals, and now that I’ve achieved this one, I have to examine my various writing ambitions and decide what to tackle next. In the meantime, I’ll keep blogging away. Have to keep my loyal readers happy, you know.

Now I am going to perform an amazing trick that will astonish and delight you. I predict that on December 12, the topic of my blog post will have something to do with getting published and achieving personal goals. Be sure to stop back by on that date so you can marvel at my uncanny ability to see into the future.

I’m exhausted. I shouldn’t be blogging at this late hour; I should be going to bed and resting my weary writing head. But this is an accomplishment worth documenting for posterity. I did it. And I’ll be back with an even bigger “I did it” when it sees the light of day.